In rackdc.props for each node I have:
dc=DCN # N is either 1 or 2
rack=RACN # N is either 1 or 2

In topology-properties I have:
ip_of_node1=DCN:RACN # N is either 1 or 2
..
ip_of_node6=DCN:DACN

+++

I don't have anything yet in /var/lib/cassandra on any node, so first startup.
This works all very well in tarball distribution for dse-3.1.0.

However, if I switch to the packaged distro and do the same (it is 3.1.1 if using apt-get) I cannot even start the first seed node (no other node is started yet, and again, /var/lib/cassandra is empty)

I get this in the logfile:

INFO 14:50:20,187 DSE version: 3.1.1
INFO 14:50:20,190 Hadoop version: 1.0.4.8
INFO 14:50:20,192 Hive version: 0.9.0.1
INFO 14:50:20,192 Pig version: 0.9.2
INFO 14:50:20,193 Solr version: 4.3.0.1
INFO 14:50:20,193 Sqoop version: 1.4.2.3
INFO 14:50:20,194 Mahout version: 0.6
INFO 14:50:20,194 Appender version: 1.1
INFO 14:50:20,234 JVM vendor/version: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM/1.7.0_25
INFO 14:50:20,235 Heap size: 2071986176/2071986176
INFO 14:50:20,235 Classpath: ::/usr/share/dse/dse-3.1.1-1.jar:/usr/share/dse/dse.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/commons-codec-1.6.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/commons-io-2.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/guava-13.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/jbcrypt-0.3m.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/log4j-1.2.17.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/slf4j-api-1.7.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/slf4j-log4j12-1.7.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/common/tape-1.1.0.jar:/etc/dse:/usr/share/java/jna.jar:/etc/dse/cassandra:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/tools/lib/stress.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/antlr-2.7.7.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/antlr-3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/antlr-runtime-3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/avro-1.4.0-cassandra-1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/cassandra-all-1.2.6.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/cassandra-clientutil-1.2.6.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/cassandra-thrift-1.2.6.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/commons-cli-1.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/commons-codec-1.6.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/commons-lang-2.6.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/commons-logging-1.1.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/compress-lzf-0.8.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/concurrentlinkedhashmap-lru-1.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/guava-13.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/high-scale-lib-1.1.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/httpclient-4.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/httpcore-4.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jackson-core-asl-1.9.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jackson-mapper-asl-1.9.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jamm-0.2.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jbcrypt-0.3m.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jetty-6.1.22.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jetty-util-6.1.22.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jline-1.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/joda-time-1.6.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/json-simple-1.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/libthrift-0.7.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/log4j-1.2.16.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/lz4-1.1.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/metrics-core-2.0.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/netty-3.5.9.Final.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/servlet-api-2.5-20081211.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/servlet-api-2.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/slf4j-api-1.7.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/snakeyaml-1.6.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/snappy-java-1.0.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/snaptree-0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/stringtemplate-3.2.jar::/usr/share/dse/solr/lib/solr-4.3.0.1-uber.jar:/usr/share/dse/solr/lib/solr-web-4.3.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/solr/conf::/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/annotations-api-6.0.32.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/catalina-6.0.32.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/catalina-ha-6.0.32.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/coyote-6.0.32.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/el-api-6.0.29.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/jasper-6.0.29.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/jasper-el-6.0.29.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/jasper-jdt-6.0.29.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/jsp-api-6.0.29.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/juli-6.0.32.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/servlet-api-6.0.29.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/lib/tribes-6.0.32.jar:/usr/share/dse/tomcat/conf::/usr/share/dse/hadoop:/etc/dse/hadoop:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/ant-1.6.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/automaton-1.11-8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-beanutils-1.7.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-beanutils-core-1.8.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-cli-1.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-codec-1.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-collections-3.2.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-configuration-1.6.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-digester-1.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-el-1.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-httpclient-3.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-lang-2.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-logging-1.1.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-math-2.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/commons-net-1.4.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/core-3.1.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/ftplet-api-1.0.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/ftpserver-core-1.0.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/ftpserver-deprecated-1.0.0-M2.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/hadoop-core-1.0.4.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/hadoop-examples-1.0.4.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/hadoop-fairscheduler-1.0.4.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/hadoop-streaming-1.0.4.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/hadoop-test-1.0.4.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/hadoop-tools-1.0.4.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/hsqldb-1.8.0.10.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jackson-core-asl-1.8.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jackson-mapper-asl-1.8.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jasper-compiler-5.5.12.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jasper-runtime-5.5.12.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jets3t-0.7.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jetty-6.1.26.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jetty-util-6.1.26.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jsp-2.1-6.1.14.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/jsp-api-2.1-6.1.14.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/kfs-0.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/mina-core-2.0.0-M5.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/oro-2.0.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/servlet-api-2.5-20081211.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/servlet-api-2.5-6.1.14.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/snappy-java-1.0.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/hadoop/lib/xmlenc-0.52.jar::/usr/share/dse/dse-3.1.1-1.jar:/usr/share/dse/dse.jar::/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/ant-1.6.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/antlr-2.7.7.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/antlr-runtime-3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/asm-3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/avro-1.3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/commons-cli-1.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/commons-codec-1.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/commons-el-1.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/commons-httpclient-3.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/commons-lang-2.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/commons-net-1.4.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/core-3.1.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/guava-r06.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/hsqldb-1.8.0.10.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jackson-core-asl-1.4.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jackson-mapper-asl-1.4.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jasper-compiler-5.5.12.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jasper-runtime-5.5.12.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jets3t-0.7.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jetty-6.1.26.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jetty-util-6.1.26.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jline-0.9.94.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jsp-2.1-6.1.14.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/jsp-api-2.1-6.1.14.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/kfs-0.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/oro-2.0.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/paranamer-2.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/paranamer-ant-2.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/paranamer-generator-2.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/pig-0.9.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/qdox-1.10.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/servlet-api-2.5-20081211.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/servlet-api-2.5-6.1.14.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/snappy-java-1.0.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/stringtemplate-3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/pig/lib/xmlenc-0.52.jar::/etc/dse/hive:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/JavaEWAH-0.3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/antlr-3.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/antlr-runtime-3.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/asm-3.3.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-cli-1.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-codec-1.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-collections-3.2.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-dbcp-1.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-lang-2.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-logging-1.0.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-logging-api-1.0.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/commons-pool-1.5.4.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/datanucleus-connectionpool-2.0.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/datanucleus-core-2.0.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/datanucleus-enhancer-2.0.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/datanucleus-rdbms-2.0.3.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/derby-10.4.2.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/guava-r09.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hamcrest-core-1.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-builtins-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-cli-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-common-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-exec-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-hwi-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-jdbc-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-metastore-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-serde-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-service-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/hive-shims-0.9.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/httpclient-4.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/httpcore-4.0.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/jackson-core-asl-1.8.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/jackson-mapper-asl-1.8.8.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/jdo2-api-2.3-ec.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/jline-0.9.94.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/json-20090211.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/libfb303-0.7.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/libthrift-0.7.0.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/log4j-1.2.16.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/mockito-all-1.8.2.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/netty-3.2.2.Final.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/netty-3.5.9.Final.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/servlet-api-2.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/slf4j-api-1.6.1.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/snappy-java-1.0.5.jar:/usr/share/dse/hive/lib/zookeeper-3.4.3.jar:/usr/share/java/jna.jar:/etc/dse/cassandra:/usr/share/java/commons-daemon.jar:/usr/share/dse/cassandra/lib/jamm-0.2.5.jar
INFO 14:50:20,818 JNA mlockall successful
INFO 14:50:20,830 Loading settings from file:/etc/dse/cassandra/cassandra.yaml
*** java.lang.instrument ASSERTION FAILED ***: "!errorOutstanding" with message transform method call failed at ../../../src/share/instrument/JPLISAgent.c line: 844
java.lang.StackOverflowError
at java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock.tryLock(ReentrantLock.java:370)
at java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap$Segment.put(ConcurrentHashMap.java:432)
at java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap.putIfAbsent(ConcurrentHashMap.java:1150)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.getClassLoadingLock(ClassLoader.java:463)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:404)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:792)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:792)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:792)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:792)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:424)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:357)
at org.apache.cassandra.utils.FBUtilities.<clinit>(FBUtilities.java:67)
at org.apache.cassandra.config.Config.<init>(Config.java:115)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(NativeConstructorAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.newInstance(DelegatingConstructorAccessorImpl.java:45)
at java.lang.reflect.Constructor.newInstance(Constructor.java:526)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:374)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.Constructor$ConstructMapping.createEmptyJavaBean(Constructor.java:214)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.Constructor$ConstructMapping.construct(Constructor.java:184)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.Constructor$ConstructYamlObject.construct(Constructor.java:370)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.BaseConstructor.constructObject(BaseConstructor.java:177)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.BaseConstructor.constructDocument(BaseConstructor.java:136)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.constructor.BaseConstructor.getSingleData(BaseConstructor.java:122)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.Loader.load(Loader.java:52)
at org.yaml.snakeyaml.Yaml.load(Yaml.java:166)
at org.apache.cassandra.config.DatabaseDescriptor.loadYaml(DatabaseDescriptor.java:153)
at org.apache.cassandra.config.DatabaseDescriptor.<clinit>(DatabaseDescriptor.java:128)
at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.setup(CassandraDaemon.java:211)
at com.datastax.bdp.server.DseDaemon.setup(DseDaemon.java:164)
at org.apache.cassandra.service.CassandraDaemon.init(CassandraDaemon.java:375)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
at org.apache.commons.daemon.support.DaemonLoader.load(DaemonLoader.java:212)
Cannot load daemon
Service exit with a return value of 3

+++

which is a pretty nice stacktrace but I have no clue what is causing the StackOverflow. Seems pretty internal with locks and classloaders...

Anybody have ever experienced the same? It is enough to reproduce if only changing the listen_address and rpc_address and seeds config parameters in the yaml file and nothing else...